US Politicians Increasingly Realize Need for Coalition With Russia

Russia and the US should work together to fight ISIL, head of the US State Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Dianne Feinstein said. According to political analyst Vladimir Shapovalov, US politicians are starting to realize that the problem of terrorism cannot be resolved without Russia.

Russia and the US should join their efforts to fight the terrorist group Islamic State, Feinstein told NBC News.

According to the US politician, the current situation would be convenient for the start of such cooperation as the United States started sharing intelligence data with Russia, something which had not happened previously.

“I think the time has come for us also to begin to develop a joint strategy with Russia,” Feinstein said during the broadcast.

Russian political scientist Vladimir Shapovalov believes that such statements are a signal symbolizing the reestablishment of constructive relations between the two countries.

US Fighter Jets Sent to Turkey to Guard Against ‘Russian Aggression’

The Pentagon has stationed a new fleet of fighter jets in Turkey. While ostensibly aimed at protecting US bombers targeting the self-proclaimed Islamic State terrorist group, top defense officials also say the jets are meant to deter “Russian aggression.”

The US-led bombing campaign in Syria has been conducting airstrikes against IS targets for over one year, now. These strikes have been carried out by B-1 bombers, A-10 and AC-130 attack planes, and while they haven’t been terribly successful, these bombers have never faced any real danger in the field.

Yet, the Pentagon has suddenly decided that these planes need to be escorted by a fleet of six F-15Cs.

“At the request of the government of Turkey, the US Air Force F-15Cs that arrived last week will conduct combat air patrols to assist in defense of the Turkish airspace,” Pentagon spokeswoman Laura Seal said in a statement.

But according to a defense official speaking to USA Today on condition of anonymity, the F-16Cs are largely present to defend against hypothetical attacks from Russian and Syrian fighters.

While both the Russian and Syrian military campaigns are focused on combating IS, the Pentagon has cited month-old claims of Russian jets violating Turkish airspace as justification.

“Turkey faces increased instability along its border with Syria and Iraq and irresponsible behavior from actions in the region,” Seal said. “This includes the incursions Russia made into Turkey’s – and thereby NATO’s – airspace in October.”

Russia’s NATO Rep. Hears Many Want to Re-Think Relations with Moscow

Whispers in the ear of Russia’s permanent representative to NATO, Alexander Grushko, told him that some members of the alliance see the folly of refusing to establish a partnership with Russia to tackle major issues facing global security.

Some NATO members are questioning the decision of the alliance to cast Russia in an adversarial role, rather than cooperate in an effort to tackle the major issues facing global security today, Russia’s permanent representative to NATO, Alexander Grushko, reported.

“In many of my unofficial meetings – and this is something that is also testified to in analytical material from experts about NATO – some in NATO question the decision to reject cooperation with Russia in a range of areas which present a common interest.”

These include “the situation in Afghanistan, which is deteriorating in all areas – security and the war on drugs are really not improving, and the social-economic situation. Plus, new factors have appeared – the penetration of the Islamic State into Afghanistan, and the advancement of extremists to the northern borders, towards the Commonwealth of Independent States,” Russia’s representative to NATO said in an interview with Vzglyad.ru.

Unfortunately, said Grushko, such misgivings are yet to take root among the top brass of the alliance, to the detriment of both global security and the foreign policy concerns of its individual members.

“If we talk about global threats, then Russia and the countries of Western Europe in many respects are equally vulnerable to the same challenges, and it is necessary to combine efforts in the interest of common safety,” said Grushko.

Why Assad Visited Moscow

Moscow has struck a devastating political blow against the West yet again, especially against its Middle Eastern policy, with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad visit to Moscow on October 20 to meet his Russian counterpart – Vladimir Putin. Spokesman for the Russian President, Dmitry Peskov said talks were held in both narrow and expanded format with the participation of key figures of Russia’s government. “The talks were held for a long while, and their subject is quite clear,” – said Peskov. Assad relayed to Putin about the situation in Syria and upcoming operations Syrian government troops. The two leaders have also discussed topics related to the participation of Russian Air Force warplanes in those operation. “The most pressing topics were the fight against terrorist groups and the extension of Russian operations to support the offensive of the Syrian armed forces, “- said Peskov. Peskov did not specify whether the political future of Bashar al-Assad himself was discussed or not. Moreover, Russia is willing to assist Syria in the search for a political solution to the crisis in the country. “On the basis of positive dynamics in combat, in the end, a long-term settlement will be achieved with the participation of all political forces, as well as ethnic and religious groups. The Syrian people certainly must have the final say. – Vladimir Putin said after the meeting was over.

It is clear that such an unexpected visit does not pursue the goal of detailed discussion of specific aspects of bilateral cooperation. Those are usually carried out by experts and heads of government bodies, in this case they were held by Russia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov and the Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu. The main goal of the Russian-Syrian talks was a demonstration of the determination that both Moscow and Damascus both have to put an end to ISIL or any other illegal armed group, created at the expense of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar with an extensive amount of support from the US, Turkey and Jordan.

For the last three weeks, while Russian warplanes have been obliterating extremist groups in Syria, Russia has been repeatedly offering the White House broad cooperation at the highest level in the fight against ISIL, starting from the coordination of air strikes and ending with intelligence data sharing. Washington and Barack Obama personally have continuously turned down these calls. Moreover, last week the US president, after consulting the Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland, refused to receive a high-level Russian delegation led by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev that sought to discuss a wide range of topics related to the situation in Syria. At the same time Moscow has openly stated that it’s critical at this stage to preserve the government of Bashar Al-Assad, while the Syrian Arab Republic is caught in a middle of a brutal war with hordes of foreign mercenaries. Once this war is over, an internal political settlement can be pursued, but only on the condition that Syrians themselves decide the fate of their country, leaving foreign and regional forces with no say in this matter.

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U.S. Begins Military Talks With Russia on Syria

LONDON — As the first Russian combat aircraft arrived in Syria, the Obama administration reached out to Moscow on Friday to try to coordinate actions in the war zone and avoid an accidental escalation of one of the world’s most volatile conflicts.

The diplomatic initiative amounted to a pivot for the Obama administration, which just two weeks ago delivered a stern warning to the Kremlin that its military buildup in Syria risked an escalation of the civil war there or even an inadvertent confrontation with the United States. Last week, President Obama condemned Russia’s move as a “strategy that’s doomed to failure.”

But the White House seemed to acknowledge that the Kremlin had effectively changed the calculus in Syria in a way that would not be soon reversed despite vigorous American objections. The decision to start talks also reflected a hope that Russia might yet be drawn into a more constructive role in resolving the four-year-old civil war.

At Mr. Obama’s instruction, Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter on Friday opened a dialogue on Syria with his Russian counterpart, Defense Minister Sergei K. Shoigu, aimed at making sure that American and Russian forces avoid running into each other by mistake. The Russians have sent tanks, other equipment, marines and now combat aircraft to their new military hub near Latakia in western Syria. The Americans have flown hundreds of air missions in Syria striking the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL.

Photo

Aleppo, Syria, on Thursday after what activists said was an aerial bomb attack by forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad.Credit Reuters

Leader of US war effort against Islamic State stepping down

The retired Marine general chosen by President Barack Obama to head military efforts against Islamic State (IS, also known as ISIS/ISIL) is leaving the position, according to a new report.

John R. Allen, the Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL, will leave the job in November, according to Bloomberg, which cited four anonymous Obama administration officials when reporting on the yet-public information.

Allen is reportedly frustrated with a lack of resources to counter the jihadist group, according to US officials. Allen had unsuccessfully lobbied administration officials for increased tactical air control teams to more efficiently target IS on the ground in Iraq, Bloomberg reported. Meanwhile, administration officials have portrayed his decision as one made out of concern for his wife’s poor health.

After originally committing to six months, Allen stayed in the position for an additional six months at the request of US Secretary of State John Kerry. In the near term, his deputy, Ambassador Brett McGurk, is expected to assume his duties.

Allen has defended the Obama administration’s IS strategy, including on one occasion earlier this month when he told ABC News that airstrikes have been successful in some areas of Iraq and Syria, where IS controls large swaths of territory.

“Where we were a year ago today, I wasn’t sure how it was going to unfold,”said Allen, who took the envoy post in September 2014. “It was not clear to me even that Iraq would survive this. In the intervening months, we’ve seen remarkable progress in many respects.”

Equating Assad & ISIS West helps to prolong conflict

Russia’s military support for Syria can only be considered controversial or wrong to those who maintain that a moral equivalence exists between ISIS and the Assad government.

Prolonging the conflict in Syria and the suffering of the Syrian people is a direct result of the mendacity and perfidy that informs the West’s stance towards the region. Indeed the lack of any moral clarity, leadership, and competence on the part of Western governments has been nothing short of criminal, with scant evidence of it changing anytime soon. Only in an upside down world could any equivalence be drawn between ISIS in Syria and the Assad government. Yet this is exactly the equivalence that the West continues to make, thus hampering efforts to destroy a movement that is intent on turning the clock back in Syria to the seventh century, embracing inhuman levels of butchery and barbarity in the process.

ISIS is the Khmer Rouge of our time, holding to a similar objective of turning an entire nation into a cultural, human, and physical desert. It revels in its cruelty and bestiality, enslaves and rapes women on a grand scale, and has been allowed to grow to the point where it now constitutes a direct threat to centuries of human progress. Thus we are talking about an organization that has no program that can be negotiated with, nothing to offer except carnage and chaos, making its complete and total destruction a non-negotiable condition of saving millions of people from a horrific fate.

In contradistinction to ISIS the Assad government is secular, believes in modernity, and upholds the rights of minorities, both Muslim and non-Muslim. More crucially, regardless of the huge campaign of demonization that has been unleashed against it in the West, it retains the support of its people, who understand more than any Western diplomat, politician, or ideologue the nature of the struggle they have been engulfed in these past four and half years.

Starting a New Cold War With Russia a Big Mistake – Sarkozy

The world needs Russia to end the civil war in Syria and flush out the Islamic State, French ex-President Nicolas Sarkozy said in an interview Wednesday. He also urged the West not to start a new Cold War with Russia.

The European Leadership Network, a group made up of members from both Russia and Europe, has warned that relations are heading towards Cold War levels of hostility following events in Ukraine

Diplomatic and military leaders are calling on Russia and the West to ‘urgently’ begin talks to prevent conflicts being accidentally triggered by an increasing number of military exercises and encounters

The European Leadership Network, a group made up of members from both Russia and Europe, has warned that relations are heading towards Cold War levels of hostility following events in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, the United States has asked Greece to deny Russia the use of its airspace for supply flights to Syria, a Greek official said on Monday, after Washington told Moscow it was deeply concerned by reports of a Russian military build up in Syria.

US Wary, Not Surprised, by Russia’s Syria Efforts

WASHINGTON—Top U.S. intelligence and security officials say Russia’s ramped up presence in Syria should come as little surprise though they remain concerned about Moscow’s increasingly aggressive posture.

“Russia has been very candid. There is some additional people and stuff that is on its way to Syria,” CIA Director John Brennan told a meeting Thursday of intelligence and security professionals in Washington.

Malaysia and Australia will sign a deal specifying who handles any wreckage from missing flight MH370 that may be recovered, including the crucial “black box” flight data recorders, local media reported Friday.

Malaysia is drafting the agreement “to safeguard both nations from any legal pitfalls that may surface during that (recovery) phase,” the New Straits Times reported.

The government hopes the deal can be finalised soon and endorsed in a Cabinet meeting next week. Canberra is studying the memorandum of understanding, it said.

“The MoU spells out exactly who does what and the areas of responsibility,” civil aviation chief Azharuddin Abdul Rahman was quoted as saying.

Azharuddin added that Malaysia would lead most of the investigation, with Australia and others helping. Details of the MoU will not be made public, the report said.

Azharuddin and other officials could not immediately be reached by AFP.

The Malaysia Airlines flight carrying 239 people inexplicably veered off course en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8 and is believed to have crashed in the southern Indian Ocean far off western Australia.

But a massive international search has failed to turn up any wreckage so far.

“Our message to the other countries of the Persian Gulf is a message of friendship, fraternity and cooperation,” Zarif said in the Omani capital Muscat, where he is accompanying President Hassan Rouhani on a landmark visit.

The sultanate maintains strong links with Tehran, and has played an important intermediary role between Western countries and the Islamic republic.

Gulf Arab countries have expressed concern about the reliability of Iran’s sole nuclear power plant at Bushehr and the risk of radioactive leaks in case of a major earthquake, as well as a possible military dimension to Iran’s nuclear drive.

Iran insists that its atomic ambitions are peaceful, despite fears in Israel and the West that these mask a covert drive to acquire the bomb.

“Iran is ready for strong and fraternal relations with all the states of the region,” said Zarif, who has embarked on a charm offensive towards the Gulf since Rouhani became Iran’s president in August.

Iran’s Rouhani extends hand to Gulf monarchies

by Staff WritersMuscat (AFP) March 13, 2014

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani sought Thursday to mend fences between his mainly-Shiite country and Sunni-dominated Gulf monarchies distrustful of Iran’s nuclear ambitions and its support of the Syrian regime.

Rouhani, winding up a two-day visit to Oman, said the Islamic republic offered “a hand of fraternity to all the countries of the region.”

“Relations with one country should not grow at the expense of another. We want to see the countries of the region live in peace, understanding and friendship,” Rouhani told a business gathering in Muscat.

The sultanate maintains strong links with Iran and has played an important role as mediator between Western countries and Tehran.

But other members of the Gulf Cooperation Council, which besides Oman also comprises Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, have cool relations with Tehran.

Its Arab neighbours have expressed concern about the reliability of Iran’s sole nuclear power plant at Bushehr in the southern Gulf and the risk of radioactive leaks should it be hit by a major earthquake.

Like world powers, they also fear a possible military dimension to Iran’s nuclear drive, despite repeated assertions by Tehran that its atomic ambitions are peaceful.

Ties between Gulf countries and Iran have also been strained by Tehran’s backing of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime in its battle against rebels supported by the Arab monarchies.

“Cooperation and rapprochement would benefit the whole region,” said Rouhani, adding that his country is “open to investors from the region, especially Omanis.”

Oman and Iran are seeking to expand trade, which reached $1 billion last year, and bilateral investments which they expect will top $10 billion by the end of this year, Iranian Ambassador Ali Akbar Sibeveih said Monday.

“We wear this uniform, and in this uniform I made a vow to be a servant of the Ukrainian people,” said Col. Vasyl Krykovskiy, the head of police in the district of Lviv. “I just have to be here and protect these people.”

Reupping shot from earlier of the 40 police officers from western Ukraine marching through Kiev to join opposition: pic.twitter.com/Vz2Fm53Tvb

He agreed to early elections and to surrender some of his powers after 77 people were killed as a geopolitical tug-of-war over whether Ukraine should embrace the West or Russia turned violent this week. (The agreement can be read in full by clicking here.)

Yanukovych said he offered the concessions to “restore peace and to avoid further victims of the stand-off” and addressed his statement to “compatriots.”

The deal states that:

Within 48 hours Ukraine must revert to its 2004 constitution, meaning some of Yanukovych’s powers will be given to the parliament. This was passed by lawmakers shortly after the deal was finalized.

A coalition government will be formed in the next 10 days and presidential elections will be brought forward from March 2015 until no later than December.

Illegal weapons must be handed in and there will also be an investigation into the deadly violence that has dominated Kiev this week.

The agreement was signed by the three main opposition leaders, including former boxing star Vitali Klitschko. However, it was almost immediately rejected by the extremist Right Sector party, which has been blamed for much of the civilian violence since protests in Kiev’s Independence Square began in November.

“We are inclined to consider Yanukovych’s statement as another whitewash,” Right Sector said in a statement. “National revolution continues.”

ANDRIY MOSIENKO / Ukrainian government via EPA

The agreement came after overnight negotiations with opposition leaders, European Union ministers and Russia.

But photographs of the document showed that the signature of Vladimir Lukin, special envoy of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was missing. Reuters confirmed that Lukin did not sign the deal and said there was no immediate explanation for his absence.

One of the European foreign ministers who helped broker the deal, Poland’s Radosław Sikorski, said the agreement was a “good compromise.”

Riot police take a break near Kiev’s Independence Square Wednesday afternoon after two days of clashes with the opposition. (Sergei L. Loiko / Los Angeles Times)

KIEV, Ukraine — In the wake of violence that claimed 25 lives and left hundreds injured, the Ukrainian government declared Wednesday that it was launching “an anti-terrorist operation” that some feared would escalate its conflict with pro-Western demonstrators.

“What is happening today is a conscious use of violence by way of arson, murder, hostage-taking and intimidation … for the sake of pursuing criminal goals,” the country’s security agency chief, Alexander Yakimenko, said in a statement published on the agency’s website. “All of that with the use of firearms. These are not just signs of terrorism but concrete terrorist acts.

“By their actions, radical and extremist groups bear a real threat to lives of millions of Ukrainians,” his statement said.

Yakimenko’s statement followed two days of the worst violence the country has seen during several months of political conflict over President Viktor Yanukovich’s decision to align Ukraine economically with Russia, not the European Union.

Hours after Yakimenko issued his warning, the Associated Press reported that Yanukovich had fired the head of Ukraine’s armed forces.

One analyst said the move may have been prompted by Zamanu’s reluctance to use the army against civilian demonstrators.

“The sudden switch can be explained by Yanukovich’s desire to use the army in combating the growing protests,” Vadim Karasyov, head of the Institute of Global Strategies, a Kiev-based think tank, said in an interview. “Zamanu has recently hesitated to express readiness to get involved in helping to defuse the political crisis.”]

As dusk set over Independence Square in central Kiev, several thousand protesters armed with sticks, stones and Molotov cocktails faced hundreds of police armed with teargas and stun grenades, water cannons and shotguns firing rubber bullets.

An eerie fog descended on the square, where several thousand protesters were praying together. At a square nearby, police buses arrived, disgorging new units of riot police and interior troops, who joined government forces positioned near Independence Square.

A portrait of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich burns near the destroyed building of the security service in Lviv yesterday after a night of violence when protesters seized public buildings and forced police to surrender

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich said on Wednesday he had agreed a “truce” with opposition leaders, after street violence in which at least 26 people were killed, and a start to negotiations to end further bloodshed.

A statement on the presidential website said that during talks with the three main opposition leaders, Yanukovich had agreed firstly a truce and secondly “the start to negotiations with the aim of ending bloodshed, and stabilising the situation in the state in the interests of social peace.”

President Barack Obama said the US “condemns in the strongest terms the violence” in Ukraine, adding that the Ukrainian government must uphold the rights of peaceful protesters. Obama said there would be consequences should “people step over the line.”

“We expect the Ukrainian government to show restraint, to not resort to violence in dealing with peaceful protesters,” Obama said Wednesday from Mexico ahead of a summit with other North American leaders. “We’ve also said that we expect peaceful protesters to remain peaceful.”

As Tuesday’s riots and clashes between protesters and police in Kiev continued into Wednesday, the European Union announced that a rare meeting of its 28 member countries would occur on Thursday to address what is to be done about the ongoing violence, AP reported.

“We’ll be monitoring very carefully the situation, recognizing that, along with our European partners and the international community, there will be consequences if people step over the line,” Obama said.

At least 26 people, including 10 police officers, have been killed and some 800 injured since the start of violent riots in Kiev on Tuesday. The most recent, deadliest wave of violence in Ukraine started with an attempt by radical protesters to storm the building of the Ukrainian parliament (Verkhovna Rada), which prompted fierce clashes with police. Several buildings in central Kiev – including the office of the Party of Regions – were stormed, looted, and set on fire.

At least 426 people have sought medical help following the clashes in Kiev, the city’s health department said. There are currently 277 people being treated in hospitals for injuries, including gunshot wounds and burns.

Despite the fierce battles on Independence Square (Maidan) and the possibility of further violence in coming days, Obama said the US and its partners would watch vigilantly to make “sure the Ukrainian military does not step to what should be a set of issues that can be resolved by civilians.”

Reuters / David Mdzinarishvili

Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have “agreed to continue to do everything so that there is no escalation of violence” in Ukraine, Merkel said, as quoted by Reuters. The German Chancellor spoke with the Russian president over the phone.

Germany Trying Friendly Approach to Ending Ukraine Unrest

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, center, welcomes Ukraine opposition leaders Vitali Klitschko, left, and Arseniy Yatsenyuk, right, Monday, Feb. 17, 2014 at the chancellery in Berlin to discuss the country’s crisis. The former Soviet nation has been in chaos since November when President Viktor Yanukovych ditched a planned EU trade and political pact in favor of closer ties with Moscow. (AP Photo/Jogannes Eisele, Pool)

BERLIN—Germany is seeking to play good cop to America’s bad cop in Western efforts to mediate between the government and protesters in Ukraine in an early test of the German government’s efforts at a more robust foreign policy role.

The Germans have refused to back Washington’s calls for sanctions against Ukraine’s government to pressure it into accepting opposition demands for reforms. At the same time, Germany has launched a flurry of diplomacy toward Kiev and Moscow — a key ally of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych — while trying to promote selected Ukrainian opposition leaders as legitimate negotiating partners.

On Monday, Chancellor Angela Merkel and her foreign minister held closed doors talks with top Ukrainian opposition leaders Arseniy Yatsenyuk and Vitali Klitschko, speaking with the two for about an hour.

Merkel assured Yatsenyuk and Klitschko that Germany and the EU would do everything possible to try and assure a “positive outcome” to the crisis in Ukraine — support for which the two praised the chancellor at a short news conference after the meeting.

“The chancellor is one of the most influential people in the world,” Klitschko said through an interpreter. “The backing of Germany and the EU plays a big role in Ukraine.”

Merkel’s spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said the release of jailed protesters in Ukraine and the handover of occupied buildings in Kiev on Sunday were signs that the government and opposition can find common ground, despite months of increasingly bloody confrontation.

Berlin’s diplomatic advance has put it at odds with some of its European Union partners, including Sweden and the Baltic nations, which have pressed for a harder line against the former Soviet republic, according to Stefan Meister, a senior research fellow at the German Council on Foreign Relations.

But it fits in with the German government’s recent pledge for a more assertive role on the international stage.

For Germany, Ukraine is a good test case — a large European country, relatively close to German borders undergoing a more difficult transition than other former Soviet states such as Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which joined the EU years ago.

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